Mumbai kidney racket: Court grants bail to five doctors

Highlights

Five doctors of L H Hiranandani Hospital, including the CEO and MD, were arrested for alleged involvement in a kidney transplant racket.

The racket was first unearthed at the trust-run facility on July 14 this year.

Five doctors of L H Hiranandani Hospita were arrested for alleged involvement in a kidney transplant racket.

MUMBAI: A metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai on Thursday granted bail to five doctors arrested in the July 14 kidney transplant racket unearthed in L H Hiranandani hospital, Powai. The five are hospital CEO, Sujit Chaterjee, medical director Anurag Naik, Mukesh Shette, Mukesh Shah and Prakash Shetty. The court directed their release for a bail of Rs 30,000 with one or two surgeries of like amount and imposed few conditions. The doctors have to attend police station every Monday between 6 and 8 pm till September 26 and cannot leave the country without permission of court. All doctors made a plea for cash bail. It's being considered. On Tuesday Aabad Ponda and Pranav Badheka along with Subir Kumar and Brian D'Lima appearing as lawyers for the doctors appeared for their bail plea before the Andheri magistrate Ashwini Lokhande. Ponda had said the police themselves had last Saturday said that there was no financial dealing by these doctors over the donation. Besides, they said they are doctors of good repute and standing in society and would not abscond or tamper with any evidence of release. "Their continued incarceration is unnecessary," said Badheka. He had also added that Dr Mukesh Shah, a urologist, has performed in over 50 cadaver organ donation cases and often does it free of charge. Ponda said the police had not sought further custody indicating their interrogation is over. He said that neither doctor had any role to play in the approval of the donation and while the "prime accused including the donor, donee and coordination are out on bail, the doctors who had no role wee inside." He also said that the wife of Dr Prakash Shetty, gave birth to twin daughters and was in slight critical condition. He said "even on humanitarian grounds" his case be considered as "God has blessed them with children on Saturday for the first time after 17 years of marriage." The prosecutor in a short submission before magistrate Lokhande had opposed the bail plea on the ground that the doctors "might tamper with evidence." He had also in a weak attempt said probe was still on as the pre-arrest bail plea of the two doctors who were part of the committee was rejected. Police have however not arrested those two doctors yet. Badheka had said that "it was the duty of the authorisation committee to do a proper verification of the donor and donee after interviewing them as it was not the responsibility of re doctors who were there only to operate, some where there only in case an emergency arose."The doctors said the responsibility of the transplant was on the hospital transplant manager Nilesh Kamble, better known as the alleged coordinator for the transplant.?The doctors, including Dr Sujit Chaterjee, chief executive officer and director of Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, had last Saturday been produced before the holiday court as their three-day police custody following their arrest expired and a holiday court had remanded them to magisterial custody? till August 26. They are lodged at Arthur Road jail. Dr Suvin Shetty and Veena Sewlikar were part of the committee that approved the kidney donation and transplant request for the July 14 surgery, the interruption of which by activists blew the lid off the case. The panel is a protective layer that was introduced in 2014 in the amended organ transplant act and is not supposed to have anyone associated with a patient’s case on it. The arrest of the five doctors was based on the state health department report into transplants.?All five doctors?were were booked for offences under provisions of indian Penal Code and also under Transplantation of Human Organs Act 1994 sections 12 (no registered medical practitioner shall undertake the removal or transplantation of any human organ unless he has explained all possible effects, complications and hazards) and 21 (act has been committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been committed with the consent or connivance of, or is attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the company).Earlier, on August 9, the police had sought the custody of doctors on four main points, primarily that they were negligent in failing to scrutinize the papers, to find out whether they are involved in kidney transplant procedures at other hospitals too, whether more than Rs 8 lakh was paid and to whom, and to find out their motive as it was a “very serious offence”.

“None of those arrested had dealt with the documents for screening of the donor and recipient,” Ponda had said then, pointing to the “irony” of the donee being out on bail. On August 3, the Andheri court has released the 42-year-old Anand woman on bail. She had agreed to donate her kidney to Surat-based textile businessman Brijkishore Jaiswal. Shobha Thakur, whose kidney donation operation was interrupted midway by Powai police at Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, hospital staffer Nilesh Kamble and the patient’s son Kishan Jaiswal were granted bail. The to be recipient patient, Brijkishore Jaiswal (who was to get Thakur’s kidney), was also granted bail since he was on dialysis. The donor however is still at the women's jail as she has been unable to produce a surety for her release on bail.